Questions tagged [pollination]
Process of pollen transfer in plants, enabling fertilization and sexual reproduction.
87 questions
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How do cucumbers happen? What does "very poorly pollinated cucumber" mean exactly? How can pollination be "uneven"?
This answer to Strange Fruit from Tomato Plant begins:
That looks like a poorly pollinated cucumber (the type of distortion on the fruit is exactly what you'd see if pollination were uneven).
...
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How do you tell if a tree is male or female?
I was reading through some of the questions on fruit trees, because I've been thinking about getting some blueberry bushes and cherry trees, and I see a lot of people mentioning that the trees don't ...
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How long can a bell pepper plant thrive while maintained indoors?
I haven't found anything stating that the plant dies off after producing fruit and it is my understanding that if I keep the environmental conditions correct, continue manual pollination, and add ...
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What is the proper technique to hand pollinate an eggplant?
I have an eggplant that has thus far produced several flowers, but no fruit yet. I have read that hand pollination is often necessary for eggplant to produce fruit.
How do I go about hand pollinating ...
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What is the difference between male and female asparagus plants, and is it important for growing?
Yesterday I found a box of two asparagus plants among some bags of bulbs at a local store. I couldn't open it, so I don't know what they look like, but the box was about 6 inches tall and 3 inches ...
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What causes flowers to fall off of a blueberry bush?
My blueberry bush's flower bells are falling off, leaving only the center stalk (stamen? pistil? whatever it is, its part of the sex organs)
Is this what happens when a blueberry flower is properly ...
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Can I cross pollinate basil and chili peppers?
If I want to plant 2 different species of chili pepper, should I be careful to prevent cross pollination? I heard that chili are self-pollinating, but I don't understand this. Wouldn't any plant ...
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Rotating indoor plants outdoors for pollination, fresh air, etc. How often?
Following up this question, I have a rock filled border surrounding the outside of the screened-in porch. I'm planning to have container plants both inside the screened-in area, and outside on that ...
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Why does my Goji Berry produce many flowers but never bear fruit?
I have a 4 foot tall Goji Berry plant that has been prolifically producing flowers all year long. None of the flowers ever become fruit. I've witnessed hummingbirds poke into each flower because they ...
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Do tomatoes require pollinators to bear fruit?
I ask because I have a small raised bed wrapped in hardware cloth to keep the wildlife out, and then it's covered in shade cloth to keep the hot southwestern sun out. The plants (one "container tomato"...
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Is it practical to breed new cultivars at home?
Is it sensible and possible for a home gardener to attempt to create new cultivars (e.g. of citrus) via manual/controlled pollination in a home garden without specialist equipment?
For instance, if I ...
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What can I plant to attract butterflies and other pollinators in Minnesota?
A lot of plants can pollinate themselves.
Fruits: Tomatoes, Strawberries
Vegetables: Peppers, Eggplant, Snap Beans, Lima Beans, Lettuce, Endive, Peas,
Cabbage, Broccoli, Beets, Kohlrabi
...
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What steps can I use to encourage pollination?
I have some plants that have many flowers but not very many vegetables being produced; sometimes it seems as if I'm growing the plants for the pretty flowers and not for the vegetables that may ...
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Increasing Olive Pollination
I have a Mission Olive tree, and I've read in several places that Sevillano and Ascolano will both increase fruit set as these 3 are good cross pollinators of each other. Unfortunately I cannot find ...
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Do cloned tomatillos pollinate each other?
For tomatillos that require a pollinator, if I have only one tomatillo plant, but I root some cuttings from it, will the plants pollinate the other clones (and/or the parent)? They're all from the ...
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Why have only the female flowers bloomed in my pumpkin patch
I planted two Giant Atlantic pumpkin plants in my garden around 9 weeks or so ago. The male flowers where the first to show, many of them but haven't bloomed and are quite firm to the touch still. ...
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Red streaks in Louisiana sweet oranges
We have orange trees that have always produced "orange flesh" oranges. This year a few of the oranges have red streaks in them. Is is possible that this year the flowers were crossed with a blood ...
cajun girl
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Are Lady slipper orchids self fertile, and how can you pollinate them?
I am trying to get seeds from a certain orchid (Lady slipper) I have. Are they self fertile? What would be the best way to pollinate them?
The genus is Cypripedium
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How to make sure a sunflower produces seed?
I started a single sunflower, a giant cultivar called 'Titan', it's been doing well so far.
I want to have valid (or, is the better word 'viable'?) seeds from it at the end of season. They don't have ...
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Deer ate my lily buds last year. Will the bulbs survive this year?
My mother has been raising an ever-growing family of lilies of various colors for the past 15 years. In the previous house, they would grow to almost 6-foot tall while in the new house (which gets a ...
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When should I hang my mason bee house?
I bought a mason bee house from gardener's supply and I am wondering when should I hang it up?
I am in Berks county, PA.
Here is the link : http://www.gardeners.com/Mason-Bee-House/37-481,default,pd....
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Can a topworked female pistachio tree be pollinated by grafting a male bud or scion?
If one has female pistachio trees coming into bearing age, can they be pollinated by grafting a male bud or scion onto a topworked female?
If so, assuming it's done early in grafting season and with ...
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Brassicas seed saving
I plan on growing a few different brassicas such as cabbages and bok choy, and I'd like to collect seeds from these open pollinated varieties so that I don't have to keep buying seeds.
How do I ...
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Do sterile plants still produce pollen or nectar?
While reading on certain plants, I often read that some of their hybrid varieties are sterile.
While it seems clear that the plant will not produce offspring I'm not sure if it still produces pollen ...
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Is it possible to preserve male squash flowers for pollination?
I have only one plant of each, Zucchini and Butternut squash. Sometimes female flowers bloom when no male flower is open. Can I somehow preserve the male flowers to pollinate by hand later ?
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Does the (Malus) Prairie Fire Crabapple require cross pollination?
Does the Prairie Fire crabapple tree require cross pollination to survive?
I have heard from numerous sources that if we don't plant another (different) crabapple tree next to it, it will die. However,...
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Can I preserve plant pollen?
I have an amaryllis plant that is getting ready to bloom, and I know that I won't have enough time to cross pollinate it with a snowdrop so I want to know if it's possible in general to preserve ...
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Scorpion Pepper growth
Backstory
Hey everyone, first post in this stack, so sorry if I didn't see an answer to these questions (I did check though).
So I have a Scorpion Butch T plant that I bought about 2 months ago (63 ...
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Why do my passion fruit flowers lack pollen?
I have a passion fruit plant that is about 4 years old, and all the fruit it ever given were two little cracked marbles that fell off the plant quickly.
I water it regularly, I attempted to water it ...
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Plants that attract butterflies and dragonflies
I am in Zone 9b and want to attract butterflies and dragonflies in my backyard.
What can I do and what plants do I need to grow to encourage them to stay around?
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Side effects of introducing cultivated variants of a plant into an area where the wild version grows?
Plant breeders, farmers and gardening enthusiasts have for centuries been selectively breeding plants to develop plants with certain desired traits, be it larger roots or fruit, showy flowers or....
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Pollinating C.pubescens (rocoto) peppers
Inspired by this question, I have grown some rocoto (C.pubescens) from seed. Despite using grow lamps and salt petre, germination rates weren't high, but after only 3-4 months I have some strong ...
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Affect on Netting on Fruit trees that have Flowers and Bees
I am looking to use a Tree net for my fruit trees to protect them from Birds and Squirrels . One of the trees I plan to spread it over is the " Manilkara zapota " Tree. I had some good production this ...
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Clementine seed results
I've got 7 plants from clementine seeds and want to know what possible results I can expect in terms of fruiting if any, depending on which different citrus trees could have pollinated the parent.
The ...
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Tomatoes and pepper plants dropping flowers
I am new to gardening and I have planted tomato and pepper plants. They make flowers but they drop them and they are not making any vegetable. Any idea what could be reason? I am in the city so I ...
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Can I save a male pumpkin flower for later pollination?
I have a pumpkin that's been putting out male flowers for about 3 weeks with no females yet. I'm worried I might not have any male flowers open when the females do bloom. Can I save some male flowers ...
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Is Zanthoxylum simulans (Sichuan pepper) self-pollinating?
One can find a lot of contradicting information about this topic on the web. It would be nice to have a definite answer to this question.
Does anyone have a solitary plant (with guaranteed no other ...
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What is the fate of this sunflower? Will it produce seeds?
The sunflower in this picture is the only one that survived out of three that my kids grew from seeds as one of their school projects. At the end of the last school year, we brought them home, when ...
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What is the result of "unpredictable" cross-pollination of beets?
I inherited a community plot this summer along with a sprinkling of second-season plants which were overlooked at harvest in the fall. I have one beet which is currently bolting (do you say bolting ...
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Are muskmellons self-fertile?
I am experimenting with muskmellons this year.
Starting from seeds I kept from a melon I bought last year I was having 3 nice seedlings by the end of April. Putting them outside in May (and hoping ...
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Why is my indoor lime tree growing fruit without pollination?
I'm growing a lime tree indoors. It's about 7 or 8 years old now and finally producing some flowers and also fruit. I just read a home guide from SFGate that manual pollination is required to grow ...
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How to hand pollinate Narajilla (Lulo)?
I have been poking a little at the flowers but they are not what I am used to. I've hand pollinated many other plants with success but this flower structure is more closed off and I can't seem to ...
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Should I pinch my blueberry bushes for the first year?
I know you're supposed to pinch strawberry plants for their first year. That way you have higher yields of strawberries the following years because the roots have been able to fully develop during ...
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What are some good pet-safe pollinator-attracting vines?
I have some areas I want to cover in vines, and I want them to attract pollinators, but also be pet-safe (especially cats, as mine are quite curious). I could not find much documentation on this (it ...
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Why are my French Cobra bean flowers not being pollinated?
I have French Cobra bean which I heard is supposed to self pollinate. In the mean time all the flowers just dry out and fall off leaving a small stem behind. It's the first time I grow beans and I ...
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I keep getting differing answers to this cucumber question
I was always told to remove the male flowers from a cucumber plant or the fruits will be bitter, I then read "female flowers need to be pollinated with the male flowers or the fruits will not set&...
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Corn already has tassel but not female flowers
I have 5 corn plants growing on my garden, one of them (the tallest) already has a tassel, and today I moved it a bit and saw pollen falling from it. But the plant has no female flowers to pollinate.
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Should I worry about cross-pollination from the sterile comfrey cultivar, "Bocking 14"?
I am looking at growing some comfrey, Bocking 14 maybe, but I see that this is a sterile hybrid to prevent the weed from growing out of control.
My concern is: I save most seeds from what I grow, ...
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What is this tree and do I need a pollinating partner?
I recently moved and I found this tree/shrub in my backyard. It is about 1.2m tall
It produced a single fruit which looked a lot like a cherry, although it had plenty of flowers.
My main question ...
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Why are coriander plants dying?
I have lovely coriander in my window sill. After they grew really big, the stem began withering while the bushy coriander became brown. Is it because they reached seeding stage? How can I germinate so ...
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